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Monday July 4, 2005
Day 15 - Florence

Tuesday July 5, 2005
Day 16 - Florence to Venice

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Wednesday July 6, 2005
Day 17 - Venice to Washington

Tuesday morning we had breakfast early, then unsuccessfully tried to find the Medici Chapels.  We instead found the San Lorenze Church which wasn't open yet, so we headed back.  Then Bob, CJ & I went to the Pitti Palace.  Do not visit the Pitti Palace without an excellent guidebook.  We knew that there were Raphael's that we didn't want to miss, so we ended up looking at each and every painting to be sure we weren't missing anything 'good'.  After the first couple hundred paintings this got old... There were quite literally several hundred paintings in the Palace.  We ended up skipping much of the treasury because we were burnt out.  The Boboli Gardens were enormous - once there, we decided to skip them completely because we were quite tired of walking, but still had to walk another quarter mile just to get out of the gardens via the one way path.

The Medici Chapels were on the way to the train station, so I talked everyone into trying to find them again.  This time were we successful, and out efforts were rewarded.  The Chapels are fantastic, and Michelangelo's Medici Tombs are incomparable.

After the Chapels, Bob, Karin, and the kids went on to the train station, while Kathy & I went back to the hotel to get the luggage.  We taxied the luggage to the train station just as a light rain started.  Three hours later we were back where we had started, in Venice.  It was surreal arriving back in the Venice train station, thinking about all that we had seen since we last saw that station, knowing that our adventure was nearly over.

The Ketchums had an apartment near Campo Santa Maria Formosa.  We asked at the hotel for advice on a decent restaurant, and they suggested the Al Giardinetto.  It was perhaps the best meal of our trip, and an appropriate way to spend our last night in Venice.  We said goodbye to Bob and Karin, since they had a 7am flight out.

Prev
Monday July 4, 2005
Day 15 - Florence

Tuesday July 5, 2005
Day 16 - Florence to Venice

Next
Wednesday July 6, 2005
Day 17 - Venice to Washington